Bal Tashchit and Beyond: Pe'ah Forward

The Charlotte Jewish News, April 2023

By Lisa Shpritz

Here in Charlotte, one of the most significant parts of preparing for a bar or bat mitzvah is selecting and engaging in a meaningful service project that helps address a need in our community. My son, Jacob’s, bar mitzvah was in August 2022, and his Torah portion was R’eih, during which Moses shared his wisdom with the Israelites as they were preparing to cross the Jordan into Israel. One important element of the portion addresses the importance of opening our hands to the needy in our community, and this concept really resonated with Jacob. We have had a garden at home for many years, and he enjoys helping with all aspects of maintaining the garden, from planting to watering to harvesting.

He decided to develop a project along with Shalom Green to help increase the amount of fresh produce available to clients of the Jewish Family Services (JFS) food pantry. JFS serves people across Charlotte and provides non-perishables to clients from the pantry. In addition to the pantry items, clients have access to fresh produce harvested from the Shalom Green community garden, which sits right outside of the JFS offices on Shalom Park.

In order to create and shape his service project, Jacob worked with Shalom Green through a program called REgeneration, designed for 12–18-year-olds. This eight-part self-paced approach gives students an opportunity to learn the importance of environmental stewardship and advocacy by providing a framework for their plan.

In 2021, the garden produced more than 330 pounds of food that was donated to JFS and Jacob wanted to focus his project on increasing that amount in 2022. Through the REgeneration program, he learned more about Shalom Green and about the various ways the organization helps to support environmental stewardship across Shalom Park. He became particularly interested in the newly launched Pe’ah Forward initiative, through which home gardeners can donate their extra produce to the JFS food pantry. Every other Wednesday, gardeners can bring excess produce from their home gardens to Shalom Park and Shalom Green volunteers will bag and label the produce for donation.

Through the REgeneration framework, he developed a goal to collect 100 pounds of fresh produce prior to his bar mitzvah. He began harvesting and collect- ing fruits, vegetables, and herbs from many different people and places. He harvested produce from our home garden, from his Mema’s garden, and from his school’s garden. He collected produce from friends and family across Charlotte and beyond — his nana, grandpop, and uncle even brought fresh vegetables from their gardens when they traveled here from Baltimore for Jacob’s bar mitzvah. Across the Spring and Summer gardening seasons, he harvested and collected many different types of produce, including zucchini, hot peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots.

Jacob’s project was a success, and he collected more than 100 pounds of fresh produce, all of which was donated to the JFS food pantry. He learned a great deal about gardening and inspired many when he shared the story of his project during his bar mitzvah service. For those starting to think about b’nei mitzvah service projects, we would like to encourage you to consider one that involves the REgeneration program and Shalom Green. However, engaging with Shalom Green isn’t only for b’nei mitzvah projects; if you know anyone between the ages of 12 and 18 who might be interested in the environment, would like to learn more about gardening, or just wants to spend more time outside, volunteering with Shalom Green is a great way to get involved. We have garden workdays on the first Sunday of every month and all are welcome. Please visit www.shalomgreenclt.org to register. Each year, more than 600 people visit and volunteer in the garden, from Camp Mindy campers to Charlotte Jewish Preschool toddlers. Hopefully, you can also join us in the garden in 2023!

Photo caption: Jacob Shpritz harvests vegetables for Jewish Family Services as part of community project